The youths anywhere in the world,
particularly in the African continent have been major victims of all political
disasters and miscalculations from time immemorial, starting from the days of the
obnoxious slave trade up to this moment of contemporary slavery brought about
by capitalism and its operators: the bourgeoisie. In the era of slavery, the lives
of many young men and women were ostensibly wasted when the blacks were ferried
as slaves to the Whiteman’s sugar-cane plantations in the European farms. In
every dispensation of political turbulence, economic upheavals, social
catastrophe, and religious imbroglio, the youths are often the most hit. They
have been denied their rights to live fulfilled lives at different times and in
several fronts in history.
During the Nigerian civil war of
1967-1970, several millions of people died but the greater population that was
worse hit with the astringent pains and direct devastation of war were
obviously and undeniably the youths. They constituted the army of warriors that
fought on both sides of the feuding parties: the federal troops and the
Biafrans, therefore being the segment that suffered the direct carnage the
most. They have also suffered and sometimes met untimely deaths in periods of
protests in the exercise of their constitutional rights, and those of other
passive population. The youths of developing countries have certainly and
surely become an endangered species, only allowed to exist and embrace whatever
is thrown at them by the government and the society in general. The youthful virility
in them has been emasculated. Their potency has been castrated; the fire
extinguished by the policies and programmes of governments of corruption and
maladministration which have characterized the Nigeria’s political ambience since
the country’s hard-earned independence from the British slave masters. They are
left to wander in the society with whatever chaff life has left of them. Based
on the aforementioned and peculiar challenges of the youths in a clime like
Nigeria, the rate of actual suicide and suicidal attempts is also very
prevalent among this decapitated class of the society.
The youths have suffered
gruesomely in the hands of Nigerian leaders since the country got its
independence from the British overlords due to poorly-managed economy,
political brouhaha and religious acrimonies. From the time of independence, their
versatility and virility have been punctured with the sword of corruption of
the leaders. They have been deliberately sidelined and reduced to live as
second fiddle in the socio-political and economic space of Nigeria to the extent
that a slogan has been sarcastically carved out for them that “the youths are
the future of the country”. This is just to excuse the conscience of the
oppressors. With the current docility of the youths in the society and the
deliberate structure of the country, there is no future for the youths. The elites
circulate themselves in power and in governance and bestride the society like a
colossus in every dispensation. As this is so, the question remains: “where is
the hope of the Nigerian youths?” The lives of the youths have been programmed
to be wasted, stacked in irredeemable penury and servitude, regardless of the
level of education they struggle to attain. The oppression and depression of
the youths is an automated programme orchestrated by the bourgeoisie in the
society. It is only the youths that are close to these bourgeoisies that may breathe
reprieve from the clutches of strangulations and share from the national cake. The
survival of today’s youths is squarely rooted at the benevolence or the
malevolence of the bourgeoisie, it depends on the side of the divide that fate
may throw them to.
I wish to make mention of one of
the youths that could serve as an inspiration to the youths of today. I don’t
intend to go into a detailed discussion about him but just to glean some
lessons that may be relevant to our discussion. He is late Isaac Adaka Jasper Boro. He was from the now known
South-South (Niger-Delta) region of Nigeria. He was one of the vibrant youths in
the genuine struggle for the redemption of his people, from the colossal damage
wreaked on them by the powers of the federal government in his time. He fought
against the marginalization and oppression of his people, the people of the
Niger-delta. Boro was educated. He embraced the teachings and philosophy of Karl
Marx, the progenitor of the Marxist and socialist ideologies. Due to his
philosophical leaning, he hated the capitalist ideology that represented
oppression. He actually saw his people marginalized and oppressed in the spirit
of capitalism he loathed so much. He resolved to stand for the defence of his
people, and protesting against their ill-treatment by the federal government. He anchored his dissatisfaction on
intellectualism and engaged the federal government on that front. Not satisfied
with the position of the government on his agitations, he consequently declared
the Republic of the Niger Delta, a secessionist move from the Nigerian State on
the 23rd February, 1966. The republic only lasted for just twelve
days before it succumbed to the crushing might of the federal government. My
emphasis here is not that of his armed struggle against the Nigerian State, but
his agility, fearlessness, intellectual capacity, his versatility to engage the
federal government for expression of his pains and frustration. He did not
remain docile. He set his intellectual and philosophical convictions as his
basis for his agitation and action. He was not mute, not strangulated by the
mighty chains of oppression of the capitalist assailants at that time. Though
he was not allowed to accomplish his mission of creating a Niger-Delta Republic
from the Nigerian State, yet his name cannot be wished away in the history of Nigeria.
The youths must emulate him by also deploying intellectual engagement in order
to put the government under pressure to do the needful and fulfill its
constitutional obligations to its people. I do not support or suggest an armed
struggle against the government but the youths must engage the government
intellectually, following the adage that “The Pen is mightier than the Sword.”
In the past, Student Unions of
Nigerian tertiary institutions were a fearless and feared breed. They engaged
the government boldly and constructively on national issues. They articulated
their grievances and channeled them fearlessly to the appropriate quarters. The
intellectual platform was deployed extensively and effectively by the students
on all issues concerning them. Ironically, these happened in the ‘ageless past’
when students were students indeed. At that time, the government dared not
ignore the students in its policy formulation and implementation because it
knew that it would meet stiff resistance and protests if the policy was
anti-people. The students engaged the government in robust debates and
high-profile intellectual discourse on issues, proposing solutions to some
knotty national challenges. They were stakeholders in the governance of the
country. The government respected and also feared the University students for
this. Student Leaders were elected based on their versatility, intellectual
wealth, fearlessness and outspokenness.
At the period under discussion,
the students were very vocal on even issues that bother on real or perceived
corruption and maladministration by the government. For instance, the popular
‘Ali Must Go’ protests staged in 1978 was on based on the allegation of that the
then military government of General Olusegun Obasanjo through the then Federal
Commissioner of Education, Col. Ahmadu Ali (Rtd) to increase the cost of daily
meals of students from N1. 50. The Commissioner increased the daily meal ticket
of students with 50 kobo. The students reacted violently to the extent that the
country was held in the jugular for a period of time. It was a massive protest to
register a ‘vote of no confidence’ on the Commissioner for, at least, failing
to represent their welfare. The decision of the government, on the other hand,
was also viewed by the students as oppressive. The protest was led by the
fearless Comrade Kolade Shegun Okeowo of blessed memory. But today, even while the
Nigerian House of Representatives is proposing a ridiculous and an evil bill to
give amnesty to looters of public funds, the Students Unions in Nigerian
tertiary institutions under the umbrella of the National Association of
Nigerian Students (NANS), have remained complacent, mute, incapacitated and
decapitated, thereby allowing the destiny of the country to be toiled with in
the hands of these selfish politicians who brand themselves as the peoples’ representatives.
The vibrant spirits of the students have been chained to the ground.
In 1989, there was the anti-SAP
students protest when General Ibrahim Babangida’s government introduced the
unpopular economic policy called Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP). The programme
which was intended to make the proletariats tighten their belts while the
bourgeoisies adjust theirs, for their fattened waistlines was vehemently opposed
and resisted by University students at that time. The protests which started
from the University of Benin spread across other campuses in Nigeria like the
harmattan fire. But the opposite has become the case in the contemporary times
of Student Unionism in Nigeria. Where is the potency of the once versatile students’
unionism which had served as vanguard to the other youths in the society? Have
they gone into extinction? Is this generation of the youths reeling into
precipice? Where is the input of the students in is today’s governance where
there is massive loot of the national treasury, incomprehensible rising rate of
unemployment, kidnappings (even of students) and other legion of crimes freely
perpetrated in the society?
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